Subject cannot be empty (Read 1990 times)

Out for a run yesterday morning on my favorite semi-deserted trail. I was finishing up a progression-kind-of-run-thing at 7.20 pace for the last mile.

Suddenly a guy passes me quiet as a mouse. What the. Gives me a sort of peace sign gesture over his shoulder and he was gone. The guy's form was sooo fluid and his strides were crazy huge. I was mesmerized watching him pull away. Must have been doing 5.xx.

He had an olympics logo tattoo on his shoulder. Small and discrete. Cheezy? You might say, but if you were to see this guy you might think it made perfect sense.

I can't run with people like that but I love to witness their strength.

Pammie

posted: 2/3/2011 at 5:08 AM

Know what you mean

A few years back i was in a 5 mile race or it may have been 10k there were laps and i remeber the leading guy lapping me a Kenyan. It just looked like he was taking a strll in the park so effortless and easy

tesol

posted: 2/3/2011 at 6:32 AM

Sometimes one wonders where some people get their energy from. There's a guy that I see all the time on my jugging route - he's has the same effortless gliding motion about him. The way he runs makes me feel like I should either pack it up or start putting in more effort.

I tried to drop a guy in a 10K once who was obviously carrying a few too many pounds. 5:3X failed to drop him and two more 5:3Xs only led to him striking up a conversation about what a great morning it was. Dead at 5K, I told him I appreciated the conversation but he should go ahead without me as I was done, having PR'd at 5K the night before. He dropped me like a bad habit, running sub-5s through the finish. He already had his warmups on when I finished. Turned out to be a former Olympian just starting a comeback.

About 5-6 months later and 30lb lighter, the dude ran in the finals of the 1500m in the World Championships.

"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

Sometimes one wonders where some people get their energy from. There's a guy that I see all the time on my jugging route - he's has the same effortless gliding motion about him. The way he runs makes me feel like I should either pack it up or start putting in more effort.

It's funny how you say that he looked effortless, but he made you want to put in more effort.

When I was 14, my dad took me to an indoor meet, and I watched Moses Tanui run the 3000m. He left the field behind with 1000m to go, and it looked like his feet weren't even touching the ground. I remember just how relaxed and effortlessly he gave his maximal effort. It was beautiful to see a person able to use his energy so delicately and freely.

I sorta had this realization that much of what we understand as "effort" in running is working against ourselves.

I had a similar experience last night, sharing a small indoor track with some local elites, including the male (49: xx) and female (56: xx) winners of our big local 10mi race. It was pretty awesome watching them fly by with perfect form on the outside lane as I tried to do some "speedwork".

"Because in the end, you won't remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain."